Retrospective: The 1984 Olympics

Scott Hamilton entered the Olympics as the 3 time world champion and added the Olympic gold to his medal collection. A few weeks later he would retain his world title to become a 4 time world champion. He retired after the 1984 Worlds to tour with Ice Capades. After winning the 1981 US Nationals, he never lost another competition as an amateur.

Brian Orser took the silver and he would win another olympic silver medal 4 years later in the 'battle of the Brian's' at the 1988 Olympics. Orser won the SP & LP at the 1984 Olympics, but a 7th place finish in the school figures cost him the Gold

Katarina Witt becomes Olympic champion having not previously won the World title. She would nevertheless become world champion for the first time at the 1984 Worlds - just a few weeks after winning Olympic Gold. Rosalynn Sumners had entered the Olympic competition as the favourite. However, in the Free Skate, Sumners scaled back 2 of her jumps and Witt won the Gold medal by just one tenth of a point on one judge's scorecard. Sumners, retired immediately after the 1984 Olympics, but Witt carried on for another 4 years and became the first Ladies singles skater since Sonja Henie to retain the Olympic title at the 1988 Olympics.

Kira Ivanova wins the Bronze. Tragically, she was later murdered in her own apartment at the age of just 38 on the 18th December 2001. Although she had a reputation as a strong compulsories skater, early in her career she was also a strong free skater. For example, in 1982 at the Moscow News Trophy she landed a triple triple combination - very rare at the time. Nevertheless, as time went by, her free skating became very inconsistent.

Valova & Vasiliev win the pairs title, having won the world title for the first time the previous year. However, just a few weeks later at the 1984 World Championships, they had to settle for 2nd place behind Underhill & Martini who had finished 7th at the 1984 Olympics. Valova & Vasiliev continued as amateur's for another 4 years, regaining the world title in 1985. Thereafter, however, they were eclipsed by Ekaterina Gordeeva & Sergei Grinkov who beat them at the 1986 & 1987 worlds, and at the 1988 Olympics. Nevertheless, Valova & Vasiliev gained a measure of revenge over Gordeeva & Grinkov when beating them to win the 1988 world championships. It was there last competition before retiring.

Like Scott Hamilton, Torvill & Dean entered the Olympic competition as the 3 time world champions, and like Hamilton, they won the Olympic Gold medal and then retained their world title a few weeks later at 1984 Worlds and then retired. Their Free Dance during the 1983/84 season was the legendary Bolero. Somewhat fittingly, they skated the program at the Olympics on St. Valentine's Day. When choosing and choreographing Bolero, there were concerns that the program was too radical. However, they needn't have worried as when they got to the Olympics, their Bolero performance garnered them twelve 6.0's (with all 9 judges awarding them 6.0's for artistic impression) and six 5.9's

Extremely close between Klimova & Ponomarenko and Blumberg & Seibert, with Klimova & Ponomarenko just winning the Bronze medal by a small margin. The result for Bronze remains very controversial to this day.

T/D were the highlight of the Olympics with their 'Bolero' FD. But, the situation with the Ice Dance bronze medal was one of the biggest wuzrobbed's in skating history.

I thought the Ladies competition was one of the least interesting; Sumners wasn't at her best in either of the SP And LP. Witt would be a better skater by '87. Ivanova and Kondrashova were pretty boring. Chin was a bright light in the SP and LP, but took herself out of the running with a 12th place finish in Figures. Zayak was undermarked at least in the SP, if not the LP too. Leistner was an up and comer who was disastrous in the SP. Ito missed the competition due to a disaster at JPN Nats earlier in the year.

Scott wasn't at his best in the SP or LP either, but managed to win. I loved seeing Brian Boitano get as high as 5th. Orser was on fire, and I remember he was played up as the heir apparent for the next quadrennium. Didn't quite happen that way

Also happy for C/C getting silver in the Pairs event. I didn't think Pairs was all that interesting in comparison to other competitions - U/M and B/T were subpar which left the door open for V/V waltzing to the gold medal

If you watch V&V and the Carruthers back to back it's hard to believe V&V won. The Carruthers did a lot more technically & were much cleaner. Valova had 2 visible mistakes - the 2foot on the throw salcow & the step-out on the 2As. All the Carruthers' elements were bigger & nicer. Plus I always thought Valova was kind of mediocre whereas Kitty was a , esp in the death spiral. I remember watching that performance & just bursting into tears when they were finished.

I talked to Ron Ludington about my anger that boring & boring won that year & he told me that he was told about 6 mos before the Olys that V&V were going to win.

I remembered how painfully slow Scott's camel-change-camel was in the SP. I was afraid he wasn't going to be able to complete the required revolutions on each foot and still had time to complete the rest of the elements.

Roz was a big disappointment. The gold medal was definitely hers for the taking.

I agree that D&T Paso was a highlight. I'd much prefer re-watching that program than Bore-lero .

Roz was a big disappointment. The gold medal was definitely hers for the taking.

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I remember reading somewhere an interview with Sumners quite some time later that the lack of ice time in Sarejevo really affected her preparation and training for the competition. With a skater of her calibre used to 4 or 5 hours practicing freestyle a day, I believe athletes were limited to one 45 minute freestyle session only.

ABC showed a bit of Roz final LP practice the day before the final. Dick Button said that she did a perfect run-through. It was obviously nerve that caused Roz to pop two 2As and reduced 2 triples to doubles.

I don't remember reading anything about Roz feeling a lack of support from her coach. She and her coach Loraine Bowman were very closed.

Here you go: Fire on Ice Part 6, Roslyn, and her take on her Olympics. She did feel she left her best performance at that practice. And she didn't feel her coach was supportive after the short, and after Katarina skated her long, she interpreted her coach's reaction as "you have no chance" and that also affected her. Overall, neither she nor her coach handled the situation well, they both let the pressure get to them. Roz comes off both sad and annoying here - she was the on who "gave up," but she still snarks about the judges holding Kat up to much in the short.

Roz lost the ogm with the narrowest of margins on a 5/4 split, and afterward everyone was like "Why? Why? Why?" so it's not really that surprising that she was all "um... Uh...um... Maybe it as because it was a Tuesday and I usually win on Wednesday... Uh ... Uh... Uh...". At least she didn't blame the bus schedule or claim a ghost was in her hotel room.

Watch the K & C of Roz after the LP. The normally cool as a cucumber Roz got extremely happy after the Artistic marks went up. I wonder if she thought she won (it was a very close 5-4). Or maybe she was just happy with a 6.0? Those marks were all over the place - 5.6 from the YUG judge and a 6.0 from the ITA judge. LOL that the YUG judge put her behind Ivanova. Also interesting that the ITA judge gave out the 6.0: Penance for the ITA judge in Ice Dance?

Bolero is unquestionably the greatest FD of all time. With regards to the bronze however, I was fine with Klimova & Ponomarenko winning it. I thought Blumberg and Seibert should've won the silver medal though.

I just loved Torvill & Dean. My roomie had just gotten a VCR and I watched the paso and Bolero over and over.

School figures - mixed feelings about them. I do think some of the current skaters would benefit a ton from them. But they really affected results - Denise Biellmann and Brian Orser would be OGM (and Janet Lynn too though there was no SP then so its hard to compare) and Toller Cranston and Tiffany Chin would be OSM I think, to name a few.

If you watch V&V and the Carruthers back to back it's hard to believe V&V won. The Carruthers did a lot more technically & were much cleaner. Valova had 2 visible mistakes - the 2foot on the throw salcow & the step-out on the 2As. All the Carruthers' elements were bigger & nicer. Plus I always thought Valova was kind of mediocre whereas Kitty was a , esp in the death spiral. I remember watching that performance & just bursting into tears when they were finished.

I talked to Ron Ludington about my anger that boring & boring won that year & he told me that he was told about 6 mos before the Olys that V&V were going to win.

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I would have to respectfully disagree. The Carruthers should be very happy with their silver considering had Baess & Theirbach and Underhill & Martina skated like they normally do they wouldnt have even medaled. I like them but they clearly arent at the level of an Olympic Championship pair either technically or artistically. They were a better pro team than amateur team as well. Their solo jumps are incredibly weak, many of their pair elements are very good but none of their elements were the best in the World at the time (atleast V&V had by far the hardest and strongest jumps), and they arent very finished and polished off compared to the top 3 pairs at the time. V&V's jumps already gave them a huge technical edge, I dont see how you believe the Carruthers did alot more technically when one pair had triple toes, double axels (with a step out but stood up atleast), throw triple salchow, throw double axel, and the other pair had double flips, throw triple salchow, and throw double axel. Yes the Carruthers did their throws better that night, but V&V still overall did much more technically considering the jumps and the same throws attempted and landed. Their choreography was much more difficult and original than the Carruthers even with the mishmash program, and their lifts were more original as well. Other than the throws I didnt see anything the Carruthers did significantly better anyway.

Valova & Vasiliev were overrated at the time maybe and didnt deserve to win the 83 Worlds but at the 84 Olympics nobody good enough skated well enough to beat them. I agree that it seemed the Olympics was set up for them to win, and they would have won even if Baess & Theirbach or Underhill & Martina had skated their best, but as the competition turned out they were the clear winners anyway.

Watch the K & C of Roz after the LP. The normally cool as a cucumber Roz got extremely happy after the Artistic marks went up. I wonder if she thought she won (it was a very close 5-4). Or maybe she was just happy with a 6.0? Those marks were all over the place - 5.6 from the YUG judge and a 6.0 from the ITA judge. LOL that the YUG judge put her behind Ivanova. Also interesting that the ITA judge gave out the 6.0: Penance for the ITA judge in Ice Dance?

Scott wasn't at his best in the SP or LP either, but managed to win. I loved seeing Brian Boitano get as high as 5th. Orser was on fire, and I remember he was played up as the heir apparent for the next quadrennium. Didn't quite happen that wayl

I agree with judgejudy27. The Carruthers were very luck to be 2nd after the SP. Most the stars and planets aligned for them that night Who would've thought Barb Underhill would wipe out on a sit spin. A sit spin!!! The other medal favorites also messed up. I thought the Carruthers had the typical peppy, unsophisticated American style of pair skating that the European judges didn't really care for, and their single elements were weak - I hated Kitty's air position on her 2flip. Good for them for being clean when it counted, but they were always at best the 3rd ranked or lower team at the world level.

I just loved Torvill & Dean. My roomie had just gotten a VCR and I watched the paso and Bolero over and over.

School figures - mixed feelings about them. I do think some of the current skaters would benefit a ton from them. But they really affected results - Denise Biellmann and Brian Orser would be OGM (and Janet Lynn too though there was no SP then so its hard to compare) and Toller Cranston and Tiffany Chin would be OSM I think, to name a few.

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I've never understood why people think figures would help free skaters. Figures are practiced in a small space with the skater looking down at their tracings. Free skaters have to cover a large area with speed and can't look down (a hard habit to break when you learn your edges and turns that way).
At least for me, skating muscles are so specific I don't find practing figures helps with edges and turns that cover the entire ice.

I agree with judgejudy27. The Carruthers were very luck to be 2nd after the SP. Most the stars and planets aligned for them that night Who would've thought Barb Underhill would wipe out on a sit spin. A sit spin!!! The other medal favorites also messed up. I thought the Carruthers had the typical peppy, unsophisticated American style of pair skating that the European judges didn't really care for, and their single elements were weak - I hated Kitty's air position on her 2flip. Good for them for being clean when it counted, but they were always at best the 3rd ranked or lower team at the world level.

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Winning is about performing when it counts and Barbara Underhill couldn't hack it when she needed to and the Carruthers could. The same could be said in any sport for any athlete.

Maybe Savchenko/Szolkowy would have Olympic gold if they didn't have a fall or Pang and Tong would have gold if they knew to control when to stop with the music. Maybe Trankov would have a medal if he hadn't have fallen.

It's about stepping up when the time is right as much as knowing how to skate.

[*]Like Scott Hamilton, Torvill & Dean entered the Olympic competition as the 3 time world champions, and like Hamilton, they won the Olympic Gold medal and then retained their world title a few weeks later at 1984 Worlds and then retired. Their Free Dance during the 1983/84 season was the legendary Bolero. Somewhat fittingly, they skated the program at the Olympics on St. Valentine's Day. When choosing and choreographing Bolero, there were concerns that the program was too radical. However, they needn't have worried as when they got to the Olympics, their Bolero performance garnered them twelve 6.0's (with all 9 judges awarding them 6.0's for artistic impression) and six 5.9's

[*]Extremely close between Klimova & Ponomarenko and Blumberg & Seibert, with Klimova & Ponomarenko just winning the Bronze medal by a small margin. The result for Bronze remains very controversial to this day.
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Winning is about performing when it counts and Barbara Underhill couldn't hack it when she needed to and the Carruthers could. The same could be said in any sport for any athlete.

Maybe Savchenko/Szolkowy would have Olympic gold if they didn't have a fall or Pang and Tong would have gold if they knew to control when to stop with the music. Maybe Trankov would have a medal if he hadn't have fallen.

It's about stepping up when the time is right as much as knowing how to skate.

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Rather harsh words, methinks. Are you an Olympic level skater?

Maybe I'm buying into a troll's ignorance here, but it is well documented that Underhill was having tremedous trouble with her boots in the lead up to the Olympic Games. Barbara was also returning from a serious injury that put her and Martini on the sidelines for the entire season until the Games.

Boots to skaters are like knives to a chef or the right instrument for a musician. Faulty equipment can cause so many irritating problems.

After Sarejevo, they were so disillusioned the Canadian pair were within minutes of withdrawing from the World Championships in their home town. Had it not been a random suggestion from Brian Orser to try her old skates, their legendary win at the World Championships in Ottawa (still held up as one of the finest examples of pairs skating) may never have happened.

If coming back when they were potentially at the lowest points of their career isn't performing when it counts, tell me what is?

Regarding Underhill & Martini and The Carruthers, as eligible teams, both pairs rose on the scene at the same time and pretty well had the same results, and were often battling for the podium at the world level.